Killer's Brain Focus Of Death Penalty Testimony

Doctor Says Jusino, Convicted Of A Second Murder, 'Wired' Differently Than Other People

VERNON — Scans of two-time killer Jose Jusino's brain show that he is wired differently from other people, a doctor testified Thursday.

Dr. Peter Christopher Henry Gottschalk, a neurologist, was on the witness stand in Superior Court in Rockville as part of the defense's efforts to keep Jusino from getting the death penalty in the second murder.

Jusino, 25, was found guilty of the 2009 murder of cellmate Reynaldo Robles and of capital felony last month. According to testimony, Jusino was tired of hearing about Robles' problems, so he knocked him out, hog-tied him and strangled him at the Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, carving "King Guala" into Robles' chest.

The trial is now in its penalty phase, and the state has been trying to prove that there are aggravating factors in the case — that Jusino committed the murder in an especially cruel, heinous or depraved manner.

The defense is trying to show that there are mitigating factors, or evidence that would make the jury opt for a lesser sentence.

To that end, Gottschalk, an expert witness, was put on the stand Thursday afternoon.

Gottschalk, with help from defense attorney Leslie Cavanagh, showed the jury three sets of brain scans. One showed more activity in Jusino's brain than in the brains of control group members when participants in the study were at rest.

Another set showed that when given a simple task that required Jusino to make a decision, the same part of his brain was again "overactive" compared to the others, he said.

The doctor also testified that Jusino's brain responded differently in yet a third test, and that part of his brain is thicker than similar brain areas of the people in the control group.

To sum up, Gottschalk testified, the information "shows significant differences in the size, shape and ... function. It says something about the way this brain is wired."

Prosecutor Reed Durham asked questions about how the members of the control group were selected. He suggested through other questions that any stress Jusino experienced over his role in the study could have affected the results.

Earlier, the defense tried to inject doubt in jurors' minds about Jusino's first murder conviction. He was serving a 30-year sentence for a fatal shooting in New Haven when he killed Robles. The prior murder conviction is what triggered the capital felony charge.

His defense attorney from that case, Glenn Conway, testified that he felt the facts of the shooting more closely fit a charge of manslaughter. But when the state offered his client a 30-year sentence for murder, he advised Jusino to take the deal, he said, in part because the prison term could have been much longer after a trial.

During questioning by defense attorney Michael Fitzpatrick, Conway also testified that a pre-sentencing report showed that Jusino had a history of PCP use at the time of the shooting.

Fitzpatrick had Conway read the statement of apology Jusino read to the court when he was sentenced: "I was smoking. I wasn't thinking of what I was doing."